


Red as Blood

by Synderellas_Revenge



Series: White as Winter - Red as Blood [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-03-30 16:23:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3943513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synderellas_Revenge/pseuds/Synderellas_Revenge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>The trouble with ghosts is; they will always haunt you.</p>
  <p>If you go looking for them; they'll find you.</p>
  <p>~</p>
  <p>The trouble with being a ghost is; they'll never let you live.</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ghosts in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Because this city, this city is haunted....
> 
> *Written and originally posted on Mibba by me about six months ago as SynderellasRevenge.* * Sequel to White as Winter.*

Time had flown by since he talked to Steve that day; they’d been living together in DC for just shy of a year. Though it had been so long, he would sometimes sneak out while his best friend was sleeping to wander the city like he had the night she found him. Sometimes he thought it was because he missed the quiet of the streets in the early hours. But every time he did this, he ended up in the same place; that same alley where he stumbled upon her. No matter how many times he checked there, or how many hospitals they had visited the week after those events—he couldn't find her. She was a ghost—not unlike he had been over a year ago—one that haunted him almost nightly.

He didn't understand why it bothered him so; was it because she was like him? Or maybe it was because she saved him from his self-induced solitude? Or the fact that he had hurt her and couldn't help her, couldn't find her to make sure she was alright? Whatever the reasons were, it kept him up at night and Steve started to take notice. One morning after one of his wanderings, Steve had woken him up and dragged him out of the apartment for a ‘treat.’ They walked for a little while until they reached a coffee shop with a large, green logo plastered on the windows and sign, which was pretty crowded.

“I don’t understand why we couldn't just go to the diner, this line is going to take forever Steve.” He complained, rubbing at his sleep crusted eyes.

“Because this stuff is better than diner coffee, and it’ll jump start your heart for you.” Steve stated with a faint smile as the dark-haired man grumbled under his breath at him. “I know you’re not sleeping Buck, you think I don’t hear you when you slip out the front door?”

“Obviously leading a civilian life is making me rusty then.” He shot back, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear as the line advanced some. Steve had complained at him plenty of times to cut it, but he had found that this longer style suited him.

“It’s not that; you've been my best friend _my entire life_ and you honestly think I don’t know what you’re up too?” Steve questioned him but he simply ignored the blonde and instead focused his tired eyes on the menu above them.

“Five dollars for a cup of coffee?! What’re they putting in it, gold?” He scoffed, shaking his head at how different things were now versus when they were young men. The blonde rolled his eyes at the obvious aversion to his question but set his annoyance aside.

“That’s a Frappuccino, Buck, it’s like a coffee milkshake—they’re good but not something you would like I don't think.” Steve explained to the dark-haired man with a chuckle and a smile. He had been just as lost the first time Nat had brought him here.

“How do you order a regular coffee? Do they even have that here?” Buck asked, glancing at the blonde on his right with a brow arched. “And what’s with the sizes? Cause I’m pretty sure all those words mean large.”

“I’ll order for you, don’t worry.” Steve replied, clasping a hand to his best friend’s shoulder as they took their place at the counter.

Steve rattled off some nonsense to the barista that seemed like secret coffee codes and paid for their drinks, making sure to leave a tip in the jar before they moved to wait for their order. It wasn't long before they walked out to sit in the patio area, drinks in hand as they watched the flow of people travel by on the sidewalk. He held his cup up to his nose, taking in the scent of whatever the blonde had gotten for him before taking the smallest sip of it. There was a layer of sweetness from what seemed to be French vanilla flavored cream but after he swallowed his nose crinkled up at the bitterness of the coffee.

“What the hell is that?” He demanded, glaring at the blonde as he held the cup away from him like it was a bomb about to go off.

“It’s called espresso, Bucky.” Steve answered with a hearty chuckle at his friend’s reaction; his blue eyes were wide with shock as shook his head at the drink.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not right, Steve—“ But the dark-haired man didn't get to finish his sentence as he stared at the drink in his hand, for a split second time stood still as a glint of metal passed his line of sight. The cup stayed steady for a moment before the slits in either side of the fortified paper opened up spilling hot coffee into the crevices of his metallic hand causing him to drop it from shock. “What the hell?!”

The blonde began searching the area for a source of the attack while Bucky followed the trajectory of the glinting object to the wall off to the side of them were it was wedged. He moved to pluck it from its spot, studying the throwing star that was cold to the touch—flecks of ice sat on its surface where remnants of his coffee coated it. Steve couldn't trace an attacker and instead turned to his friend who was staring at the weapon before handing it to the blonde. He slowly curled his metal hand into a fist, before stretching his fingers back out to see what kind of damage the coffee and creamer had done to the bionic limb.

“Whoever they are, they’re after you—we need to get off the street Buck.” Steve explained as he pocketed the weapon before clasping a hand to his friend’s shoulder and leading him to duck down the nearest alley.

They snaked around the backstreets aimlessly for what seemed like a half hour to make sure they weren't followed before backtracking to head over to where Nat was hold up for the time being. Once there, they gave her the throwing star to run for prints while Steve made some coffee since they hadn't been able to enjoy theirs before the attack. The blonde kept running theories past Bucky about the cause of the incident (most revolved around Hydra looking for him still,) but the brunette was too distracted to hear any of it. It wasn't long before the petite redhead joined them in the tiny kitchen to fill them in on her findings.

“Well?” Steve prompted as she sat at the small table across from Bucky, sliding the weapon back across to him.

“Not much I can tell you, there’s nothing on here—not even a partial.” Nat explained with a small sigh, her blue eyes peering into the blondes. “Whoever threw it was smart enough to wear gloves, so it’s got to be a professional.”

“Not necessarily,” Bucky interjected as he looked up at the redhead before going on, “I found ice on it when I pulled it from the wall, most of it was melted when it went through my coffee.”

“That doesn't make a lick of sense.” Steve stated with a shake of his head as he looked down at the star in his best friend’s hands.

They stayed there for a few more hours—Nat and Steve kept swapping theories while the brunette stayed quiet, his mind reeling with different possibilities entirely. After a while Steve decided it was safe to head home and the said their goodbyes before hitting the pavement again. The blonde made dinner that night and after they ate, Steve tried to distract his friend with some of the movies from his ‘catch up’ list. But it seemed that Bucky’s head was elsewhere the entire time and soon they both retired to their rooms for the night.

~

The clock on the nightstand read 2:45 A.M.; he had been lying in bed for hours with his mind reeling with the events of the morning before. He sat up, peaking out his open door to the room across the hall where Steve was passed out with his back to the doorway. He watched the steady rise and fall of the blonde's shoulders for a minute or two to confirm that he was asleep before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. He very carefully crept out into the hall and with one last glance over his shoulder moved swiftly and quietly towards the front door of their apartment. He slid his leather jacket on over his metal arm and had just started to shrug into the other side when the light came on, temporarily stunning his eyes as he let out a deep sigh—he’d been caught.

"You really think that's a good idea, Buck?" Steve demanded as the brunette turned to face him. He crossed his arms over his toned chest while giving his friend a stern, older brother look— _when had they switched roles?_

"I can take care of myself, Steve." He shot back, finishing sliding his arm into the jacket before shoving his hands in the pockets.

"That's not the issue; you were _attacked_ in **broad daylight** today Bucky! You really think you should be wandering around by yourself in the middle of the night?" The blonde ran a hand through his hair with a sigh as he moved towards his best friend who refused to answer and just stared at him with pursed lips. "I don't even understand why you're doing this still--it’s been a year, Buck, what're you hoping to find?"

"I don't know, Steve!" Bucky exclaimed with a hint of a growl as he threw his mismatched hands up in frustration. For a few moments there was nothing but silence between the pair as the stood staring at one another. Finally the dark-haired man turned his back to his friend, placing his flesh hand on the door knob before he softly grumbled, "I'll be back in a while."

"At least keep your phone on." Steve asked in a defeated tone, coming to grips with the fact that there was no wining with the stubborn man across from him.

"Will do." He shot back with a quick nod of his head before opening the front door and letting it slam behind him as the blonde trudged back to his room to try and sleep.

~

He'd been wandering the streets for what felt like several hours though the sky above remained an inky sapphire. His feet had a habit of taking him to the place his mind traveled to so frequently and that's where he had been standing for the past twenty minutes. His eyes weren't very focused, instead his mind was preoccupied with the past, and that would be his downfall. Even if he hadn't been distracted he still wouldn't have heard the approaching person, their footsteps were calculated and silent. Red eyes surveyed their prey from behind, noticing just how far his mind was from his surroundings.

The red-eyed assassin quickly developed their plan of attack, noting how close the target was to the left wall of the ally. They moved swiftly towards the dark-haired man, their footfalls failing to echo in the enclosed space. It was all too easy to leap up and propel off the wall with their feet as one gloved hand jutted out to grip his shaggy locks tightly as their body swung around. The assassin tucked a knee up to their chest as they finally made contact with the man's body, knocking them both to the ground as he yelped in surprise. Having regained his focus, he looked up into the red eyes of his attacker with shock--the rest of their face was hidden beneath a mask similar to the one he had worn what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"You’re…….a girl….” He murmured and just barely in the light pouring into the alley from the street lamp at the other end he could see the corners of her eyes turn up like she had smirked under the mask.  
She cocked her first back and brought it down into his cheekbone as he tried to tilt out of the way, her grip on his hair constricting his movement. He let out a small hiss at the contact and as she cocked back again he ripped his hair from her grip and brought his knee up to her lower abdomen. The contact plus pushing with both hands at her shoulders was enough to unseat her and send her toppling off of him. He did not, however, have enough time to get fully to his feet before she jumped to hers and swung her boot-clad foot into his shoulder knocking him back down again.

She placed her boot to his throat, keeping him locked on the ground as her red eyes glared down at him, one hand pulling something from one of the holsters on her hip. Both of his hands grabbed at her ankle as she unsheathed her dagger and attempted to push her off twice to no avail before she leaned in close to his face. As she moved the blade towards his eye, he pushed once more causing her to lose balance, he back colliding with the concrete next to him. He scrambled to his knees and climbed on top of her, his hands clamping down on her wrists to secure them to the ground and he let his knees dig into her sides as she struggled against him.

“What is it you want from me?!” He demanded with a growl as she tried to push the hand with the dagger towards his face as her eyes squinted with concentration. Suddenly he felt a deep temperature change in that wrist which puzzled him until he watched ice shards creep up the handle of the blade, sheathing it until it was covered in entirety. “ _You’re the one who attacked me earlier_ ……..aren’t you??”

She seemed to smirk under her mask as her red eyes lit up the tiniest bit with amusement, taking the opportunity of his confusion to push against his grip, driving the iced dagger closer to his face. His eyes went wide at the small distance between the tip of the blade and his right eye causing him to react by letting go of her other wrist and cocking his metal fist back before bringing it down against her face. He heard a sickening crack that surely meant her nose as well as the hard plastic of her mask with now broken. When he pulled away his theory was confirmed, blood was beginning to pool around her nose as she groaned, her eyes scrunched in pain as he noticed the piece of the mask sticking into her cheek. He began to pull the rest of it away from her face only to let out a loud gasp—the plastic fell from his hand to the concrete as he stared, utterly flabbergasted.

“ _You look like you’ve seen a ghost_ , Solider.” The red eyed woman whispered with a harsh laugh as she spat some of the blood that had trickled into her mouth out next to him, some of it stained her lips—the ones the mask were meant to conceal—the red harsh against the pale blue.


	2. Chapter 2 - Static

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside...

“ **Snow?!** He demanded in a mystified tone as he simply stared down at the bloody faced female beneath him—his grip on her wrist began to slacken as he waited for her to respond.

“What snow?” She asked as she arched a brow, the hand clenched around the dagger lowering momentarily with the confusion of his word. She quickly shook it off and tried to use his preoccupation with her to an advantage, slashing at him with the ice covered blade but he had regained his composure in time to dodge it.

“What’d they do to you??” He questioned as he pinned both her wrists down, switching both over to one hand so he could grab the dagger and toss it away as his blue eyes searched her own contact covered ones. “They wiped you again, didn’t they?” She continued to struggle against him, staring blankly at his questions. “ _I can’t believe Hydra found you again…._ ” He whispered more to himself than to her.

“ _Good_ ,” She seethed at him finally, a small smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. “You know exactly who sent me, _who wants your head_.”

She brought her knee up into his lower spine with force causing him to arch back with a howl, releasing her wrists in the process as his hands flew to the aching spot on his back. Before he could reassert his hold on her, she turned her body to try and reach the dagger that was laying a few feet from her fingertips. Oh how the scene reminded him of their meeting the previous year, in this same alley—the memories tore through his brain viciously as they did most nights. _If only I could get her to remember, to break through the white wall that is holding her memories back…._ he thought to himself. That’s when the idea clicked in his brain and he figured it was worth a shot at least.

As she wiggled underneath him towards the blade he roughly cupped her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. He instantly dipped his head down until his warm, rosy lips met her icy blue ones in a kiss. She stopped her movement for a few moments, completely stunned by the action and the way it made her head swim as well as ache. His action was like casting a fishing rod into the darkest part of the water in hopes of making something bite but she pushed it all away. _He’s my mission_ —she told herself, one hand moving to tightly circle his neck as the other gripped his metallic shoulder. He gasped for air, blue eyes looking down at her as she let a wicked grin break out across her face and light up her devilish eyes.

“Sorry, _**Soldier**_ , they said you would try to seduce me— _too bad I have other plans._ ” She murmured with a husky growl as he began to feel the cold seep into his throat from her hand—and worse his bionic arm, which she was ever so slowly running her hand down.

He gasped for air as she watched the metal become thoroughly iced over, chunks seeping into the small nooks that allowed for him to be more flexible. He groaned in bursts at both the cold against his throat and the feeling of the ice on the metal combined with the cold wind whooshing through the alleyway. Still memories stirred…… _’That must hurt out here in the cold’_ …….she had told him before, now she was causing it—using it against him knowing it was a weak point. She finally let go of him, kicking him off of herself as she turned to push up to her feet, casually walking towards the discarded blade before plucking it up. He choked and spluttered as air was able to enter his lungs again, though it was still harshly cold.

He crawled towards her as she stood staring at the dagger with a smug grin, using his metal hand to draw her leg out from under her sharply—her front connecting to the concrete hard with a sickening crack as her face slammed down. He used his grip to drag her towards him, hoping to get the blade from her again but she pushed herself up, swinging her upper body around. He glanced up at her bloodied face, her nose was definitely broken now and couldn’t react fast enough to stop her from bringing the blade down into his flesh shoulder. He screamed as the icy metal sunk under his shoulder blade and she cackled at him, ripping her leg from his grip before slamming it into his face for good measure.

“ _Until next time, Soldier…_ ” She hissed at him as she scrambled to her feet and took off soundlessly into the night—she knew someone would have heard his scream and now was no time to get caught.  
He lay there in agony, struggling to push himself up with his dysfunctional metal arm, using the brick wall next to him for support. He tried his hardest not to move his right arm, scared to jar the blade further into his flesh. With his left he dug in his pocket for his phone, speed-dialing his blonde roommate as he rested his head against the brick—sweat poured down his back making his clothes stick to him and his body shiver with every breath of wind.

“’Lo?” Came the groggy voice from the other line.

“ _Steve…._ ” Bucky groaned, his breathing ragged and his voice hoarse. “I need you to come pick me up, quickly….”

“Buck?!” Steve’s tone changed instantly at his friends’ words, and Bucky could hear him jumping out of bed. “What’s going on, where are you?!”

“I’ll explain later, just come get me, you know where I am.” He whispered as the pain began to make his head swim, his vision going in and out.

“On the way.” He responded and hearing that he flipped the phone shut, sinking down the wall into a seated position.

~

_They had said he would try and seduce her, but why?_ She wondered to herself, her thoughts moving at a pace similar to her feet below her as she snaked in and out of alleyways. It wasn’t advised to think beyond the mission for any reason, and she had been taught not to question her orders, hadn’t she? But she could never seem to keep her mind from wandering to _the whys, the how’s_ and _the what ifs_. As she stopped momentarily to check her surroundings, glancing back to make sure she wasn’t followed she began to explore the reasoning behind such an action. _Did he simply think he could use her femininity to his advantage? Or was there something else, some lingering history or….._

“ _ **No.**_ ” She commanded herself aloud, violently shaking her head at the idea. “You **do not** have a past, you mustn’t _think, ask……_ ”

Even though she was ordered not to, sometimes she couldn’t help but try and look back. _Everyone comes from somewhere, right?_ She would tell herself—like a rebellious teenager trying to reason out a forbidden choice. It hurt to think about it, physically, it gave her massive migraines trying to sift through the white fog that clouded her mind constantly. Every great once in a while, she could pull something through, though it was almost always hazy at best. She pulled at her hair as if it would somehow stop her mind from trying to probe into that cloudiness again, her breathing hard as tears began to threaten to fall.

_“Who do you think you are?” His tone softened at her words, he could see her struggle to piece her thoughts together._ **His voice sounded familiar but she couldn’t place it.**

_“A sinner.” Her voice sounded as barely a whisper, her eyes focused on the ratty combat boots on her feet._ **She wasn’t looking—couldn’t see his face through the static in her memories.**

Tiny flashes came in quick, jarred sequences behind her closed eyes as she slipped down the brick she had leaned on for support. The pain in her head was excruciating as she tried to sort through it all. 

_Punches thrown, blood being wiped from faces, flashes of light on silver and the sound of metal hitting bone and brick. Laughter, wry smiles, the taste of skin and groans. Red on white, dirty snow and biting winds. Faces she couldn’t fully see nor recognize. A ratty old van that she was pulled into and then a blinding light that seared the inside of her eyelids. Crying and being questioned, men in white lab coats, machines and syringes. She could she herself fighting, lying broken and then nothing but static._

As the images began to fade back into the alley around her, she realized she was crouched against the wall behind her—hyperventilating as tears made frozen tracks down her cool skin. Her fingers were weaved so tightly in her hair that her nails dug into her scalp as the pain flared behind her eyes. She gasped in the cold air, trying to get her breathing steady as the white noise in her ears was replaced with the sound of sirens a few blocks from her. She had stayed still too long and she knew it, quickly turning on her heels to dash off into the shadows.

~

After he hung up on his best friend, Steve dialed Natasha as he quickly slipped into his shoes and began to shrug on his coat haphazardly. When the redhead picked up he explained the situation briefly as he headed out the door. He planned on meeting her at the scene since she was a good few blocks closer, she would get Bucky into a vehicle and he would run to her place on foot. By the time he arrived, bursting in the front door, Nat had already began sewing the brunette up in the kitchen. Steve tried to catch his breath as he stared into the pained blue eyes of his friend.

“What the hell happened to you Buck?!” He demanded impatiently, he knew sooner or later something like this would happen and he had tried to warn him.

“ _I found her…Steve_.” The brunette replied, avoiding the real issue at hand (as he had a way of doing,) that he was injured. “Or rather the other way around.”

With a roll of Natasha’s eyes behind him as she finished taping the bandages up, Bucky began to explain everything that had occurred on his midnight outing. When he finished the blonde simply shook his head at him, wondering how he could still possibly be worrying about this strange woman. One, who in Steve’s mind, only seemed to bring his friend pain. When he tried explain this to Bucky, he got huffy and the pair began to bicker. The only thing that got them to shut up was when Nat announced the food she had ordered for the three of them had arrived. There was a deeply awkward silence surrounding the meal, broken only by the occasional grunt of pain as the brunette would reach for something across the table. As Nat cleaned off the table, the two men stared at each other with brooding looks before Steven finally let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair.

“You’re not going to stop, are you?” He questioned with a defeated tone, he knew the brunette understood him without mentioning anything further.

“Would you, Steve?” Bucky demanded as he glanced up at the man across from him. “Can you honestly say that you’re willing to leave her behind? With **them**? _**After everything?!**_ ”

As his words soaked into Steve’s mind, he let out a deep sigh and nodded his head in agreement—he was right, there was no way Steve could leave anyone behind like that. Bucky’s lips turned up into a wry smile at one corner as he accepted his victory. The pair bounced ideas off of Nat as to where she thought Hydra may have set shop up locally and discussed a plan of action concerning the mysterious girl that kept slipping from their grasps. Almost two hours had passed and the sun was beginning to rise behind the curtains leading Nat to declare that they were more than welcome to crash there, but she was headed to bed. The pair wished her a good night and began the trek to their own apartment to catch some sleep themselves.


	3. Haunted and Hunted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything just leads to more questions, for them both...

She stood there, looking at herself in the cheap gas station mirror as water dripped down her pale skin. She should have reported in by now, but the static wouldn’t leave her alone. The flashes were still coming to her only now they were too fast, like a blink of the eye—she couldn’t make anything out. She had stopped bleeding and now that she had a chance to clean up you’d never have known she had been in a fight to the death only an hour ago. She may have looked fine but her body was sore with the night’s cold, bruises and the pounding that wouldn’t cease in her head.

She ripped a sheet of paper towel from the dispenser next to her and used it to quickly blot the water from her face—crumpling it with excessive force before tossing it towards the already too full can. She then walked out the door, heading to the counter where she demanded a pack of smokes before throwing some wadded bills at the cashier as he forked them over. She grabbed one of the lighters next to the register, showing it to him before making her way back onto the streets. Outside the sky had begun to lighten up, sunrise was only an hour or so away and she needed to disappear.

She knew she didn’t have time to make it to headquarters, but she knew a spot she’d be safe. First though, she needed something to put in her stomach—maybe then the aching in her head would dull but it wasn’t likely. Her feet had a way of taking her where she needed to go, like a part of her knew these streets better than she knew herself. Soon enough she arrived a dingy diner where she ordered a coffee and some kind of breakfast combo. She sat in a corner booth while she waited, head upon the table hoping the cool surface would soothe her somehow.

“Order for… _Angel_?” Came the sweet voice of the young waitress chimed.

**‘Angel’** was the name they had given her, but she was still slow to react to it for reasons unknown to her. She slid out of the booth and gratefully accepted the bag as well as the coffee. After heading out the side door she noted the pink and orange hues painted into the fading night sky causing her to quicken her pace. A few blocks away was a rusted up ladder that led to the upper floors of an abandoned apartment building. She quickly scaled it and slipped inside the second window which was always open. She didn’t know how long the place had been vacant but most of the furniture had been left behind which suited her just fine in a pinch like this.

The shabby table in the corner only had one good chair left in which she sat, hastily ripping into the bag for the plastic fork and stryofoam container. She watched for a few moments as the steam rose up from the food before eating at a pace that would make most people sick. _How long had it been since she had eaten? Surely it couldn’t be that long…right?_ Once she had finished she looked at the empty container with longing and a sigh before grabbing the coffee. She took a deep gulp of it which proved to scald her tongue and cause her to cough it back up onto the carpet. She focused for a brief moment letting the cold seep from her fingertips to the cup, cooling it down with a thin layer of ice.

She took another small sip to check if it was okay now before setting it down, pulling the cigarettes from her pocket and opening them. She plucked one out, lighting it before taking a deep drag—she didn’t know why she had bought them, why they comforted her. She had never smoked in her life; _at least that she could remember_. She smoked away at it while drinking her coffee, lighting up another right after as the static seemed to finally go away. Despite the caffeine running through her veins, she was utterly exhausted and with half a mind to sleep. 

But sleeping was foreign to her. Anytime she had broken down and given into the urge she awoke in cold sweats screaming. Nightmares seemed to plague her, or maybe they were the truth behind her life—another unaskable question that would never get answered. Soon, though, her coffee was empty and her third or fourth cigarette had been put out in the empty food container. She stared at the bed longingly, her lids heavy as the city outside began to wake up. _She couldn’t leave now, she’d have to wait for the cover of night, what was the harm in trying at least?_ She reasoned with herself.

She used the back of the chair as leverage up, the aching in her body was really starting to take over. She hobbled over to the bed, the sheets had been mussed by the previous user, as if they left suddenly. She eased herself down onto the ratty mattress, jerking the covers over her always freezing body. Her eyes shut without a second thought but she forced them back open. It didn’t last, however, as the sounds of the city through the open window lulled her to sleep.

She wasn’t sure how long the black, emptiness had lasted before it turned into the oddest nightmare— _no, dream…._

_“Do it.” She taunted him, her grin in place as she hung limply from his grip on her throat, not fighting in the least. His lips curled up in to a wicked smirk, his metal hand moving to grip her chin—making sure she kept her eyes on him as he pulled almost all the way out and slammed back into her. She moaned out, eyes going wide as her back arched into him briefly. He kept this up, not really changing the pace, just slamming into her with force and watching as she cried out, nails digging into his shoulders. After a minute or two, it began to drive both of them crazy yet he still smirked down at her, keeping her focused on him._

_“I'll teach you to fuck with me.” He growled huskily in her ear as his hands ran down the backs of her thighs until they reached her knees, throwing them over his shoulders. He sank a few inches deeper into her and she swore loudly causing him to smirk. “Hush.” He stated, supporting himself on his metal arm while his other hand covered her mouth._

Unbeknownst to her, as she dreamed she began to twitch and moan. She tried to focus more on the dream, get more detail than the haze that seemed to grow ever thicker around them. She couldn’t make out his face, only the look in his piercing blue eyes—the way the corner of his lips curled up at her. _At least she thought it was her; the blue lips stood out but the red hair was foreign to her. Was she remembering something from her past, or was she somehow imagining this all—the room, as far as she could tell—looked eerily like the one she had crashed in that night. But how would her mind even conjure up such images when she had never thought about sex before._

_**“He’ll try to seduce you….”** Their words rang through her head, echoing louder than the scenes playing before her. And as that sound grew, everything began to fade…._

Angel woke with a start, sitting straight up with eyes wide as she panted, heart racing as she checked the room for any sign of intrusion. She ran her fingers through her unkempt hair, staring at its jet black color as flashes of the dream quickly floated through her mind. She suddenly had an odd urge, and reached down to bring the sheets to her nose, sniffing them briefly. They smelled faintly like sweat and a scent she couldn’t describe that had become musty with time. 

She looked around the room once more, her eyes settling on some kind of fabric scraps over by the opposite wall. She tilted her head in curiosity at it, sliding out of the sheets to go an inspect it. She crouched down, reaching for the fabric as he heart started to beat slightly faster. It seemed to be some kind of white shirt that had been ripped apart. More flashes hit her, blinding her momentarily as they whizzed by too fast to make out. _Fighting, tearing, clawing; kissing, moaning, blood._

She dropped the scraps to the floor with a gasp and stood, shuffling back towards the rickety table to grab one of the cigarettes from the pack. She lit up, before glancing out the still open window, where night was quickly setting upon the city. She would have to move out soon, they would expect her to report in—but there was an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought. How was she going to hide the flashes from them when they troubled her so? _What if they wiped her again—if she forgot everything she was just beginning to seemingly remember?_

~

Leads were hard to come by these days, at least where Hydra was concerned. They had found and decommissioned so many bases, and yet still some managed to keep popping back up. Dumping all their secrets on the internet only managed to make the dumb ones easy to catch and the bad ones even more secretive and in-hiding than Nat herself. It was true, it had only been a day or two since the attack on Bucky, but it seemed like they were playing 52 card pick-up rather than chasing down the mysterious women that haunted him so.

“You are positive this thing was cased in ice?” Nat asked for the hundredth time, staring at the gleaming weapon in her hand. 

“Yes,” Bucky groaned, tugging at his long locks with a sigh, “you saw it too Steve, right?”

“I honestly don’t know any more Buck, it happened so fast….” Steve replied with his head in his hands, they had been pouring over every detail for hours now and it was all starting to blur together in his mind.

Bucky growled, pushing himself out of the chair and away from the table. He ran a hand through tangles with a sigh, he was totally unkempt these past few days. Both Nat and Steve had forced him to shower this morning so they could check his wounds but he hadn’t bothered to brush his hair which led to it drying in knots. _Just more reason for Steve to bug him about cutting his hair_ , he thought to himself bitterly, but it wasn’t much of a distraction. He settled for pouring himself his umpteenth cup of coffee that day, before settling back down at the table with a grunt.

“You need to eat Buck.” Steve whined at him, causing Bucky to roll his eyes at his best friend. “I’m going to grab some grub from the diner, and you’re going to eat.”

“Yes, _Captain_.” Bucky grumbled underneath his breath, but Steve still heard it and walked away with a sign to collect his jacket and keys. 

As soon as the door audibly closed, silence permeated the air between Bucky and Natasha. Though apologies had been made when they had first come in contact again, whenever they were alone things always seemed to get weird. There was too much history, too much bad blood that could never be totally forgiven, and they both understood that. Not to mention that when Steve wasn’t around, they also had to face what they had in common—their sordid pasts with the wrong side of the equation. Bucky tapped his coffee mug with his flesh hand, trying to find answers to the hundreds of questions running through his brain. Only to be pulled out by the sound of Nat’s voice.

“Do you remember….” She began so quietly, he could barely make out her words, “Do you remember any of the other projects they had running around the time you were….” She cut off there, not knowing the proper or the easiest term to describe being ‘made’ by someone like Hydra or the Red Room. 

“What d’ya mean Nat?” He asked, raising a brow in curiosity as he tried to think of possibilities. “I certainly wasn’t their only hamster, but I can’t see why that’s important right now.”

“One of the labs that I….” She stated, her eyes distant and her face blank. “The scientists there were messing around with _genetics, and splicing…_ ”

Her eyes lingered on the metal star in her hand, turning it over again and again as her thoughts wandered. _Was it even possible?_ Was the question on both their minds. _And even if they had found a way, what exactly had they used to cause such a reaction…._ Bucky flashed back to both encounters with the women called Snow, her icy, pale skin and blue lips—how she didn’t shiver in the cold of Winter and jerked at the hot coffee he had offered her when she drank it. Every time they got some sort of an answer, a hundred more popped up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do apologize for how long it's taken to update this and my other stories. I've had this chapter written for a while however, I started college this past Fall as a full-time student and things have been hectic to say the least. Thankfully two of my classes have finished so I will have more time to work on these stories for everyone! :D


	4. Capture the Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She gets caught in Bucky's 'spider web.'

It had taken longer than expected to get back to base; she had nearly ran into the blonde man that accompanied her target previously at the diner she had been at the day before. This made her very paranoid, causing her to take her time weaving around town in the dark to make sure she wasn’t followed. _She was going to be in enough trouble, she didn’t need to add that to the list,_ she thought. When she arrived she was promptly greeted with a heavily armed escort who dragged her straight to the man in charge. 

“Look who finally decided to grace us with her presence,” He greeted her with a sickly smile twisting up the corners of his lips before he finished, “our little Angel.”

“I am sorry, sir, I had to keep out of sight so the mission wasn’t jeopardized…” She tried to explain calmly, holding her ground and acting as normal as she could with the haze that clouded her mind.

“I don’t want any excuses, as fair as they might be. I want results, Angel.” He demanded in a harsh tone, the smirk quickly fading into a flat line of disapproval. “Mission report?”

“The attack went as planned that morning, the target indeed came to the alley like you said he would. I tried to take him down but only managed to wound him, albeit greatly, before having to take cover from the police. He would have needed medical attention at the least.” She responded in a dull tone, trying not to let any other details slip from her mind, _just report the facts, nothing else…..facts._

He nodded as he listened to her and moved around her slowly, assessing any physical damage she might have taken during the brawl. He noted a few shallow cuts and scrapes as well as some light bruising—no doubt caused by the metallic arm of her target. As she waited quietly for instruction, he turned away from her and looked instead to the doctor standing nearby. Her mind set to panic mode and she tried her best to hide her erratic breathing from being visible or audible for that matter. _He wants to wipe me, he knows……_ she thought to herself. This was her worst fear, always.

“Clean her up, prime her and get her ready for the next mission. I want her ready and gone by tomorrow evening, that should be enough rest and recovery.” He demanded of the doctor who quickly nodded silently and approached the young woman as he turned and walked away from the scene entirely.

As soon as he was gone, the doctor sat her down on a hospital bed and began to strip off her shirt in order to patch her up. She breathed a deep sigh of relief—she had got off easy this time, no wiping necessary. Her memories and questions were he own for a little while longer. Once she was attended to she was given the choice to sleep or receive a meal first. She opted for the rest because her stomach was in knots over everything, not that she would explain that to any of them. 

Her armed escort, who had been by her side through this all, led her to her ‘room’ and let her settle in for the night before locking the door behind him as he left. She was glad they trusted her just enough to not keep a guard on her at all times anymore. She feared that she would surely wake to more dreams like she had in the abandoned apartment previously. It had to happen like this every time, she imagined, not that she could be sure with the constant wipes of her memory. She fell asleep wondering if the dream was really a dream at all, maybe it was a memory? _But why?_ Was always her go to question when she couldn’t understand something—just like a small child. 

~

“It’s been a few days, and nothing new Buck.” Steve explained for what seemed like the millionth time to his best friend. “Honestly, what makes you think she’ll come back tonight?”

“I know how _they_ work Steve, you don’t. She’ll be back tonight, its been too quiet. And she’ll look for me in that alleyway first.” Bucky complained, running his flesh hand through his brown locks with a heavy sigh.

“Why would she go back there again?” Steve questioned with his hands folded neatly behind his head, trying to keep calm during these talks was getting increasingly harder. He always knew Bucky was as stubborn as him but these days and with this woman, his head seemed as hard as the metal arm attached to him.

“Because they’ll tell her she can find me there.” He replied simply as stared at the plate of food in front of him with disinterest. “We stick to the plan….”

~

The armed guard escorted her out of the base as night settled in around them. She had her instructions and her feet took her away to her destination quickly. She hung around in the shadows, her red contacts glaring into the dim light of the alley, searching for any sign of her target. _Why would he keep showing up here?_ She wondered to herself. They had told her she would find him here once again but she didn’t understand why. She waited just like that for a few hours it seemed before she noticed a figure moving near the other end of the alleyway. _This idiot really is back_ , she thought as she grinned, he was making this easy.

She crouched in waiting, like a cat ready to pounce on a fresh toy. He stopped midway down and began to stare at the brick wall in front of him for some reason. This confused her and in turn distracted her momentarily before she slunk down towards him silently. Upon closer inspection she noticed her was staring at a portion of the wall where the brick had been impacted and crumbled away. Lose scatterings of the material sat in a pile near his feet still and she wondered what was so mystifying about it. She quickly shook the thought and leapt forward at him with grace, her arms reaching for his biceps with a firm grip as she pushed one knee up into his spine. 

His face smacked against the brick with a groan, and she began to let the cold flow through her fingertips, intending to disable his metal arm before they got any further. She chuckled softly as he struggled against her, trying to get his arms free from her hold. She watched as frost settled into the cracks of his metal arm with delight, waiting for it to stiffen and lock up on him. Then it was his turn to laugh and she scrunched up her face in confusion at the back of his head.

“What’s so funny, Soldier?” She seethed in his ear as he turned his face ever so slightly to the side to glance at her. His lips were turned up at one corner in a grimace-like grin as a thin line of blood tricked from his mouth. 

“This.” Was all he replied as she felt him click his thumb and forefinger together on his metal arm—triggering something. 

She watched as what had turned to ice quickly defrosted on his metal arm and heat began to sink into her grip there. As quickly as the ice left, the heat intensified causing her to howl and let go of that arm to stare at the burn on her hand which was creased in the same pattern of his arm. He used the leverage she had on his other arm and pushed back against her before whipping his arm around causing her to slam into the brick he was just pressed against. It brought back memories for him, of their first fight here over a year ago when they had left that dent in the brick. _When I was the wild animal out of control and she was the level-headed one…_ he thought to himself.

“You know me,” He prodded as he put his still somewhat hot metal hand to her throat, trying to squeeze just enough to keep her in line without causing damage, “ _You know all of this is familiar, don’t you?_ ”

He spoke to her in the same tone Steve had talked to him when he was having reverts. He knew there was a chance they had wiped her clean again during her time away but he was going to bet they didn’t. He knew if she was as like him now as she was last year, that she was capable of hiding her memory recovery from them. He was hoping he could use that to get to her rather than to fight.

“Of course I know you, you’re my mission.” She hissed back at him, trying to talk shallowly so as not to hit her throat against his still warm hand. This slightly disheartened his demeanor but she continued on. “We did this last week, of course its familiar.” 

_Bingo._ He was right, they had yet to wipe her which meant he had a way in. But as his hand cooled back down she found her will to struggle against him once more. He was okay with the fight, after all that was how this all started to begin with. Besides, he had his plan and he was sticking to it. He shoved her further into the brick before backing away completely into the dim lighting that streaked down the middle of the alley with a grin. She raised a brow at him momentarily before leaping towards him with a fierceness in her red eyes but he easily dodged her. He turned tail and ran for the end of the alley he had come from originally, knowing she would chase him like the white rabbit to her confused Alice.

He heard her almost silent steps behind him as he turned at the end of the alley, leaping up to grab for the metal of the fire escape he knew was still dangling above him. She was hot on his tail but he was already at the landing, slipping into the open apartment window she had occupied a few nights ago. This definitely confused her, how did he know this was here? She shook the thought and slipped in after him, her contact covered eyes taking a moment to adjust to the darkness inside the room. After a few blinks she saw him just standing there, hands resting at his sides causing her to cock her head. 

It was enough to distract her and she suddenly heard a buzzing sound before her eyes opened wide in panic; _he wasn’t alone…._ was her last thought before the sting of the Widow’s Bite tazed her into unconsciousness. As she dropped towards the floor, body writhing from the electricity, Bucky moved forward to catch her as he locked eyes with Natasha behind her. As he caught her and slumped her body over his shoulder, Steve came out from the darkness in the corner where the table was looking slightly shocked that his friend’s plan had worked exactly as he said it would. 

“What now, Buck?” Steve asked, looking at his friend with confidence. This was his mission, he was in charge this time and they would have to follow his lead.

“We take her back to the base for questioning. She can lead us to whatever dying head of Hydra sent her.” He replied as his eyes gleamed with purpose for the first time in months. _He had done it, he had found her and now he could get the answers he had sought for the past year._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for my absence on here and lack of updates. College and having my son kicked the creativity right out of me for so long. This chapter has been done for a while and I am working on getting back into a regular writing and posting grove again so please bare with me! But do enjoy. <3


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